This Isnt About Trans Rights
Many Democrats who support this kind of legislation try to silence critics by labeling them transphobic and intolerant. Its a cheap and disingenuous attempt to shut down reasonable opposition.
Parents have the biggest role to play in the well-being of their children. But progressive lawmakers and activists pretend parents are abusive if they dare to question their kids position that theyre transgender.
No, 13-year-olds arent mature enough at that age to determine they can handle a gender reassignment surgery.
Unfortunately, unless a parent immediately and unquestionably accepts their kids feelings at the time, the Left deems them to be unfit parents. And they believe that if a child even suspects their parents might say no to a life-altering surgery, the child should have the right to move forward on their own.
Its an easy position for politicians or activists to take when they dont have to deal with the consequences the way a child and his or her family would.
Equal Access To Health Care
New York law prohibits discrimination based on gender identity or expression. Everyone has the right to be addressed by their preferred pronouns and names and to receive non-discriminatory care. Trans children and teens are therefore entitled to be treated like any patient with a health care need when they seek services of any kind, including services related to their gender identity.
Old Law New Application
The Court of Appeal decision is not new law. Section 17 of the Infants Act has been part of the laws of BC since 1996. So this case is old law applied to a new situationhormone therapy for transgender youth.
While it is technically possible for a parent to challenge the decision of a health care provider to treat a minor without parental consent, the Court of Appeal has clarified that the challenge will be successful only if a parent can show that the care provider has not followed the Infants Act: that the youth does not have legal capacity to consent to the health care, or that the health care provider has failed to explain the treatment and its risks and benefits, or that the health care provider has failed to make efforts to determine and conclude that the health care is in the youths best interests. A challenge will never be successful if the challenging parent just has a different opinion than the health care provider about the childs best interests in relation to the care.
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Liias Finally Weighs In With An Evasive Response
Initially, Liias did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
Instead, the Senate Democratic Caucus spokesperson sent a statement arguing there is not a specific mention of gender affirming care in statute. She argues that means gender reassignment surgery would still need parental consent.
But SB 5889 mentions explicitly gender dysphoria and gender affirming care. And Liias bill covers gender affirming surgical procedures.
When asked to clarify their statement with the language in the bills, the spokesperson did not respond. But at the behest of the Senate Democratic Caucus, Liias finally responded.
I asked Liias if he supports gender reassignment surgery for minors either with or without parental consent. He would not answer directly but implied he supports it with or without parental consent.
There is not a short or simple answer on what care is appropriate for which individuals. In short, I support the ability of all trans people to access medically necessary care. Medical providers use established standards of care in consultation with patients and their caregivers as appropriate, Liias wrote in an email to the Jason Rantz Show on KTTH.
He linked to the American Academy of Pediatrics with an example of pediatric care guidelines. It does offer guidance to avoid surgery, such as pubertal suppression in children.
Rantz: Wa Laws Now Allow Teen Gender Reassignment Surgery Without Parental Consent
Washington state now appears to allow minors to undergo life-changing gender reassignment surgery without parental consent.
Under a new law, health insurers must cover gender-affirming care, including surgical treatments that were previously denied coverage. Democrats rejected a proposal to apply the new law to patients over 18 years old.
Its one in a series of new laws that, taken together, allow children as young as 13 years old to make serious health care decisions. The consequences are immense.
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Fact Check: Dr Rachel Levine During Hearing Did Not Confirm Or Deny Support For Children Having Gender Reassignment Surgery Without Parental Consent
8 Min Read
Social media users have been sharing posts online which claim that Dr Rachel Levine, former Secretary of Health for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and now President Joe Bidens new assistant health secretary,believes children should be allowed to have gender reassignment surgery without parental consent. There is no evidence to support this claim.
Examples of posts making the claim can be seen here and here . The posts read: Dr. Rachel Levine, US Assistant Secretary for Health, believes that all children should be allowed to select their gender and have access to government-funded sex reassignment surgery without parental notification or authorization.
The posts likely refer to an exchange between Senator Rand Paul and Levine during her Senate confirmation hearing on Feb. 25, 2021. A video of the exchange can be seen on C-SPAN here .
Paul starts the C-SPAN clip saying genital mutilation has been condemned by the World Health Organization, the United Nations Childrens Fund, the United Nations Population Fund. Reuters was unable to find WHO or U.N. statements condemning gender reassignment surgery for transgender people, and searches for genital mutilation and these agencies result in papers on female genital mutilation, an entirely different practice indeed that has been condemned by both agencies .
In the exchange, Paul asks Levine whether she supports minors being able to transition, calling the procedure genital mutilation.
How To Get Hormones As A Transgender Minor
For young people who are sure they want to make a gender change, getting on hormone blockers and maybe hormones can help a lot.
You need to be sure, though.
Hormone blockers will stop your puberty. If you stop taking them, your puberty will start again.
Hormones may change your body so you can not make children.
If you are not an adult yet, these are the ways you can get them.
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Republicans Saw This Coming
Republicans argue the current laws do not require parental consent for these surgical procedures if the patient is between 13 and 18, assuming a patient is able to find a willing doctor.
This is wrong 13-year-olds are not mature enough to make gender reversal surgery decisions and need parental support during this time, State Representative Michele Caldier told the Jason Rantz Show on KTTH. The same legislators who pushed the age of purchase of tobacco products from age 18 to 21, now claim 13-year-olds are able to make the solo decision whether to get their trachea shaved or a mastectomy.
I am a foster parent who takes in hard-to-place teens. These kids need my help for simple day-to-day tasks. I couldnt imagine them making life-changing decisions without my support or their parents support, Caldier added.
The direct intent of SB 5313 wasnt to offer surgical treatment to minors. But combined with previously passed legislation, its now possible.
Republican lawmakers saw this coming. Its why they saw only one defector.
State Senator Phil Fortunado attempted to amend SB 5313. His amendment inserted language that would deny gender-affirming treatment to patients under 18. But Democrats, who have control of the legislature, rejected it.
On the House side, Caldier tried to at least tighten the language.
Again, Democrats rejected it.
School Approves Program To Give 13yo Girls Hormone
Rachel Blevins June 20, 2018
While parental consent is typically required when a student goes on a field trip or is subjected to a vision test in school, students as young 13 years old are being prescribed birth control at a public school in Washington D.C. and they could leave school with a prescription for pills or a newly inserted IUD, without their parents ever being notified.
The program is currently happening at Anacostia High School, a public school in D.C. that has around 450 students, 98.9 percent of whom are African American. Only 1 percent of the students are proficient in Math, and only 4 percent are proficient in English, according to the schools website.
Midwife Loral Patchen, who runs the program at the school and is responsible for administering pregnancy and STD tests, and prescribing various forms of birth control to underage girls, told NPR that the goal is to reduce the rate of teen pregnancy.
I feel really good about the fact that we offer the full range of options and we have very very low removal rates, Patchen said, noting that the girls typically stick with the form of birth control she prescribes for the remainder of their time in high school.
Patchen also provides prenatal care for young girls who are already pregnant. While the information she is giving may be valuable, the fact that parental consent is not required raises some serious red flags.
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Oregon Offers Minors Taxpayer
In a matter of months dozens of kidssome younger than 9received taxpayer-funded, sex-change therapy in a state that earlier this year made it legal for minors to undergo radical treatment for gender dysphoria without parental consent.
Judicial Watch has obtained documents from the Oregon Health Authority that show 56 minors have received assessments or therapy related to gender dysphoria under the states taxpayer-funded health plan since January. Seven of the children were aged 0-9, according to the records obtained by JW, 22 were between the ages of 10 to 14 and 27 were 15-17 years old. The publicly-subsidized Oregon Health Plan delivers treatment that can include hormone-suppressing drugs and surgery for those who claim to have gender identity disorder.
Seventeen of the minors received hormone treatments or other drugs since January, the records show. This is described in the state documents as medications to suppress puberty in gender questioning youth. It may seem insane, or even criminal, for a licensed medical professional to administer drugs to a child who may be questioning their gender in order to suppress that childs puberty. The medications as well as psychotherapy and doctor visits are all covered under the state measure, according to the records.
Judicial Watch is a 501 nonprofit organization. Contributions are received from individuals, foundations, and corporations and are tax-deductible to the extent allowed by law.
Emotional And Social Challenges
Clark and Sarah separated in 2013. Their separation and subsequent divorce seems to have been a relatively peaceful onetheir agreement involved a high level of mutual cooperation and custody time shared equally between mother and father. But Clark believes that the parental split still hit Maxine pretty hard. Not yet 10 years old at the time, Maxine began to make some poor choices of friendship at school. Her difficulties escalated as she began adolescence, and by grade six her school was frequently reporting her to her parents for misbehavior. In grade seven, at around the same time that Maxine began experimenting with her gender identity, she developed an infatuation with her first male teacher. When Maxine was forced by the school to stop writing this teacher love notes, she sunk into a period of depression and self-imposed isolation, during which she declared herself a lesbian and spent copious amounts of time secluded in her room with the lights off and the shades down, limiting her social interaction to online chat rooms.
In grade eight, while she was being affirmed in her transgender identity, Maxine had a second infatuation, this time with a male P.E. teacher. Her advances were, of course, not requited, and she was removed from that teachers class. Nevertheless, she continued to stalk him around school, and engaged in a suicide attempt which she attributed to being rejected by her teacher.
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Gender Reassignment Surgery Is Now Available To Oregon Minors Without Parental Consent
The topic of gender has been much discussed recently, especially with the high-profile case of Bruce Jenner transitioning to Caitlyn Jenner. Its a very hot-button topic and will probably become even more so once the political debates of 2016 get into full swing.
Gender dysphoria is defined as the condition of feeling ones emotional and psychological identity as male or female to be opposite to one’s biological sex. Though there arent any major numbers stating just how many people have gender dysphoria, it is well known that struggling with ones identity can be a burden not just for the one struggling, but for friends, family, classmates, colleagues, and more.
In Oregon, a controversial new law has been in place since the beginning of 2015 that has left residents of the seemingly forward-thinking state stunned.
Gender reassignment is a procedure that Bruce Jenner underwent to complete his transformation from male to female. While he is a consenting adult, the new law in Oregon allows for minors as young as 15 to get the surgery, even without consent from their parents.
The sheet also states that, although they are certainly able to, at the time of the fact sheets publishing, zero teens and 10 adults under the Oregon Health Plan have undergone sex reassignment surgery.
Legal Rights Of Transgender Youth Seeking Medical Care
ABSTRACT: Medical care providers have specific legal duties in relation to youth: to respect their human rights and to assess their capacity to consent to treatment. In AB v CD , the BC Court of Appeal clarified the responsibilities of health care providers when their patient is under 19 years of age, addressed how the Infants Act and Family Law Act apply in situations where youth and parents disagree about medical treatment. The Court confirmed that under the law, health care providers, not parents, are responsible for two things: assessing the capacity of a minor patient to consent to a treatment and determining whether a treatment is in the best interest of that patient. Where a health care provider assesses a young person to be capable and concludes that the treatment is in their best interests, the young person alone has authority to consent to or refuse treatment. In providing health care to a youth, providers responsibilities are subject to the scrutiny of their professional bodies and human rights tribunals.
BC law regarding transgender youth consent to gender-affirming medical treatment is unambiguous: the youth has exclusive rightprovided certain conditions are met by their health care provider.
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Minors May Get Sex Changes Without Parental Consent If Californias Teachers Union Has Its Way
SANTA ANA, Calif.The California Teachers Associations recent position statements suggest that students should be able to receive hormone therapy to change their sex without parental consent.
Although this CTA belief does not directly change regulations on the matter, it indicates the kind of legislation the powerful union will support.
On Jan. 26, CTA changed an existing policy to explicitly include transgender and non-binary youth among the students who can leave class without parental permission to receive birthcontrol, abortions, and other such services.
While the updated policy does not include hormone therapy explicitly, the rationale discussed by CTAs civil rights committee in making the policy change indicates thats the final goal.
Concerned teachers showed The Epoch Times the policy change, which is not publicly available. CTA spokesperson Claudia Briggs confirmed the new belief statement.
The policy now reads: CTA believes comprehensive school based health care clinics are needed to bring caring and responsive services to young people. The clinics shall provide cisgender, transgender and non-binary youth equal and confidential access to decision-making rights for students and their families.
The rationale behind this policy change was printed in a CTA Report of Board of Directors, Committees, and Items of New Business in June 2019.
Even though it seems very peaceful here in the United States, she said, there is a war currently in the minds of our kids.
Canadian Court Rules Child Can Start Hormone Therapy Without Parental Consent
Tim Pearce, Breaking News Reporter |
A Canadian court has ruled that a child can seek and receive medical treatment, including hormone treatment, without parental consent.
The British Columbia Court of Appeal ruled that the child, who had begun hormone treatment after a January 2019 lower court ruling, was capable of understanding the treatment, its risks, its consequences, and granting consent.
The January 2019 ruling said the child, then 14 years old, had the authority to consent to receiving hormone treatment to transition from a girl to a boy, according to the Post Millennial. The ruling also placed a ban on identifying any parties to the case publicly and blocked the childs father from talking to the press or referring to the child as his daughter.
The Court of Appeal ruling struck down some parts of the lower court ruling, such as the judges finding that the father referring to the child as his daughter was a type of “family violence.” The Court of Appeal said the lower judge had applied too broad a definition for “family violence.”
“It is our view that raising the issue of family violence in the context of this case caused the parties to become increasingly polarized in their positions, thus exacerbating the conflict and raising the stakes in the litigation,” the Court of Appeal ruling said. “We see none of this to be in best interests.”
Younger made the in November to attend school as a boy and keep his given name rather than transition and began going by Luna.
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Human Rights Of Young Transgender Patients
In addition to having the right to consent to medical care as soon as they are capable, transgender youth have the right to have their human rights respected in the receipt of medical care. Research has shown that transgender people avoid seeking medical care because they are not confident that they will be treated respectfully.
Both federal and provincial human rights laws protect transgender people from discrimination in the provision of services, including medical care, on the basis of gender identity or gender expression. That is, legal recognition that gender identity , trumps ones sex . Transgender people in BC can have their birth certificates legally changed so that the gender marker matches their gender identity currently, they can request a birth certificate and other identity documents showing M, F, or X.
The biggest challenge to accommodating transgender people is to understand that the law recognizes a difference between an individuals sex and their gender identity, and that the law says that transgender people have the right to the recognition of their gender identity rather than being processed on the basis of their gender assigned at birth.
Best practice is never to rely on the MSP-supplied gender marker that is associated with an individuals health card because that gender marker reflects a patients birth-assigned sex, not their gender identity.